Introduction

Throughout the entire year, there has been no shortage of high-end, memorable smartphones – they just simply keep on coming, giving consumers a wide degree of variety to choose from. One of them in particular, the Samsung Galaxy S5, continues to be a relevant thing in the space, even though it’s regarded by many as an “older” handset. Despite that attachment, there’s no denying the steady momentum that’s still accompanying Samsung’s flagship, which it’ll no doubt need in order to stave off the heavy competition from the just arrived Google Nexus 6.

Design

Plastic, there’s nothing premium about it, but in this scenario, we prefer the Nexus 6’s design.

Plastic, that’s what’s on the menu for these two prized darlings, as the majority of their casings is comprised out of the material. Between them, though, we prefer the more pronounced and mature design language of the Nexus 6 – thanks in part to its sturdier construction. However, some people will appreciate the compact size and water-resistant construction of the Galaxy S5. At the end of the day, though, when it comes to attracting attention, the Nexus 6 surely employs all of the elements to catch our eyes from afar.

Unlike its rival, the Nexus 6 isn’t about the bells and whistles, but we do like that it features dual front-firing speakers – a quality that’s rarely adopted amongst smartphones in general. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Galaxy S5 is arguably the Swiss Army Knife of smartphones, as it bears a fingerprint sensor, IR blaster, microSD card slot, and a removable battery.

Display

Both employ AMOLED technology, but the quad-HD resolution of the Nexus 6 display is just a sight to behold.

Being the new kid on the block, the Nexus 6 drastically benefits from having the more attractive display – a monstrous sized 5.96-inch 1440 x 2560 AMOLED screen. In comparison, the Galaxy S5’s 5.1-inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display isn’t necessarily cutting-edge per se, but nevertheless, it’s still the resolution of choice for the majority of flagships out there. From afar, it’s tough to notice any difference in terms of details, but it becomes painstakingly obvious upon closer inspection that the Nexus 6 can’t be matched.

Employing AMOLED technology, the two displays bear pretty much the same qualities – like their wide viewing angles, deep black production, and overly-saturated color tones. With the latter, it’s apparent that the two panels exhibit a cooler tone, one that generally appears bluish. However, when it comes to brightness output, the Galaxy S5 has a distinct advantage with its 442 nit brightness – in contrast to the weaker tally of 270 nits with the Nexus 6. Yeah, it certainly makes it tough to view the Nexus 6’s display under direct sunlight, but it still carries a significant amount of pleasing qualities over the Galaxy S5 to make it the preferred display.

The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.

The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.

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